The Hardening of German Attitudes Toward Israel

Hans Kundnani is among the best guides to Germans’ collective psyche and politics. One should therefore take seriously his analysis of how German attitudes toward Israel are changing. Hans builds his analysis around the reaction to Gunter Grass’ controversial new poem criticizing Israel’s nuclear weapons programme:

what makes the publication of [Grass’] poem significant is that it expresses a sense of anger against Israel that â€“ justified or not â€“ many Germans seem increasingly to share. This anger is partly a response to Israel’s rightward shift during the past decade. But it seems also to be a product of developments in Germany and in particular the way that the Holocaust has receded in significance during the last decade. Increasingly, Germans seem to see themselves as victims rather than perpetrators.